Longtime Westminster coach Boswell dies

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Bill Boswell, former football coach and athletic director at Westminster High, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 78.

The football stadium on the Westminster campus, Bill Boswell Stadium, was named for him in 1998. Boswell was the school's football coach from 1959 to 1977, during which the Lions won five league championships. His record at Westminster is 120-65-5.

A visibly shaken Bonnie Castrey, president of the Huntington Beach Unified School District board, announced Boswell's death at the board meeting Tuesday.

Boswell served as the district's athletic director for 12 years, instructing walk-on coaches and coaching good sportsmanship throughout the district in all sports, Castrey said.

"He was a mentor to all of us," she said.

Boswell was active for years with the California State Athletic Directors Association, most recently serving as CSADA's conference manager.

"CSADA has taken a big hit," said Bryan Crow, the organization's pastor.

In a statement, the association called Boswell and his wife, Jo, "the heart and soul of the CSADA."

Administrators and former colleagues at the school board meeting remembered him as a caring teacher and coach with an outsized influence.

District Director of Special Education Jim Keating said he coached football and taught with Boswell in the 1970s and '80s and called Boswell "a tremendous influence" at the meeting.

"He was very special to me and really reflects my career in my district and really reflects how caring people are," Keating said. "He epitomizes the relationships and what's really meaningful in this district."

Larry Brennan, a water polo coach who said he was recruited by Boswell, called him "a role model as coach, as an athletic director and as a person."